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Date:         Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:48:34 -0700
Reply-To:     Brian Jarvinen <brianvwagain@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brian Jarvinen <brianvwagain@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      water-cooled alternator bracket
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

The fun began with one of those sounds you don't want to hear, the alternator belt squeal. So I open it (84 stock 1.9L - "Martha") up with a friend of mine, owner of an air-cooled 82, to see just what is going on. The belt is perfectly tight...but the alternator is fairly loose. The bracket you use to tighten the belt is snug, and the alternator is snug in it's own little bracket underneath, but the underlying bracket is completely loose. Even more puzzling, you can feel (but not see), that one of the mounting nuts is definitely loose...but there is only one stud to mount it on. You would think there would be two studs and eventually Bentley confirms this. In the short run without getting into a bigger project we decide to tighten the one nut just to drive Martha home. I get it finger-tight but there is no way to get a wrench on to this nut. My friend had a great inspiration to put the head of a flat-head screwdriver on one of the faces of the nut and tap it down and this helped get the nut perhaps another half-turn. But by the next day the squeal is back and clearly something had to be done.

When I took the alternator off I at first thought, Eureka!, no problem to tighten it when the alternator isn't there, but no, the bracket itself prevents this. The bracket is mounted via two studs that come out of the block. Luckily, the missing stud seems to have vibrated all the way out, rather than breaking, something I've experienced far too many times with exhaust studs. But after replacing the stud, and even to get the stud all the way into the block - how to ever get a wrench on these nuts? What prevents this is a coolant pipe coming out of the head, with a couple nuts and a gasket, no problem there, but the other end disappears into the water pump without a gasket and must use some sort of internal seal...doesn't seem too fun to touch this, and in fact this seal, which may be more accurately known as a "water pump sealing washer" is not that simple to come by and ten days later is still on back-order. (I ordered it and the gasket just in case). Finally after looking into special ordering an extra short wrench (a couple extra days where I live), I had another Eureka! - I could just have a regular wrench cut down to size at a welding shop. I bought a new 13mm box-end/open-end wrench and had it

cut in half. the guy at the shop kindly even buffed off the ragged edges. With my new 2" long wrenches I was able to get both nuts tightened from the side. I had been comtemplating making extra long wrenches to get at them from underneath but both were accessible off to the side. Fortunately I had both wrenches as one side needed the open end to turn it and the other side could be turned with far longer turns via the closed end.

So there you have it, if your alternator bracket needs tightening and you'd rather not open that coolant line, there is a work-around. Much like I'll never travel without a hack-saw ever again, I'll keep my shorty wrenches around a while I think.

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